The Note's Must-Reads for Tuesday, March 12, 2013

BUDGET PLANS ABC News' John Parkinson: " Will Fractured House Republicans Unite on Budget?" Tomorrow morning, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan will release the latest version of his budget blueprint, setting the federal government on a course to balance annual revenue and spending levels by the year 2023. LINK

USA Today's Susan Davis and David Jackson: "Obama, Hill leaders knuckle down on budget talks" President Obama and a divided Congress kick off a week of jockeying over the federal budget as House Republicans and Senate Democrats unveil competing fiscal blueprints and the president heads to Capitol Hill to continue his personal campaign for compromise. LINK

The Hills' Russell Berman and Erik Wasson: " Ryan to rally GOP on 10-year plan" Rep. Paul Ryan on Tuesday will seek to unify the Republican Conference with a rallying cry to balance the budget in 10 years. The target set by Ryan (R-Wis.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, is more aggressive than the one Democrats rejected last year that took until nearly 2040 to balance. LINK

The New York Times' Jeremy Peters: " House and Senate Work Simultaneously to Create Budgets, a Rarity" Congress this week will begin taking the first steps toward a more structured and orderly budget process, beginning what both parties hope is a move away from the vicious cycle of deadline-driven quick fixes. In the Senate, Democrats were putting the finishing touches on a budget they plan to introduce on Wednesday, their first in four years, while House Republicans were preparing to introduce a spending plan of their own on Tuesday morning. LINK

The Washington Post's Lori Montgomery: " Senate Democrats prepare to roll out budget blueprint" Senate Democrats are drafting a federal budget blueprint that would raise nearly $1 trillion in new taxes over the next decade and slice roughly $1 trillion more from projected spending, according to Democratic aides familiar with the document. But the framework would never bring the budget into balance, potentially putting Democrats on the defensive as Washington enters a new phase in the ongoing battle over the swollen national debt. LINK

PRESIDENT OBAMA Bloomberg's Margaret Talev: " Obama Meets With Arab-American Leaders Before Mideast Visit" President Barack Obama met with Arab-American leaders today to seek their views ahead of his trip next week to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. Obama met last week with Jewish-American leaders. Today's meeting was the first time Obama met at the White House with Arab-American leaders as a group, said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, a policy center in Washington. LINK

MMIGRATION REFORM The Los Angeles Times' Brian Bennett: " Senators agree on path to legal status for illegal immigrants" Eight senators who have spent weeks trying to write a bipartisan bill to overhaul immigration laws have privately agreed on the most contentious part of the draft - how to offer legal status to the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants. According to aides familiar with the closed-door negotiations, the bill would require illegal immigrants to register with Homeland Security Department authorities, file federal income taxes for their time in America and pay a still-to-be-determined fine. LINK

The Washington Times' Stephen Dinan: " Backlash grows over release of illegal immigrants" The Obama administration's decision to release some immigrants awaiting deportation back into the community has spawned a furious backlash from Congress, where stunned lawmakers have besieged the Homeland Security Department with questions. Department officials have described the move as a cost-savings measure required by the budget sequesters, but two years ago one top official testified to Congress that detaining immigrants is usually cheaper than releasing them. LINK

OTHER The New York Daily News' David Knowles: " U.S. Senate seat now costs $10.5 million to win, on average, while US House seat costs, $1.7 million, new analysis of FEC data shows" They're definitely not the cheap seats, that's for sure. The cost of winning a seat in Congress rose to a new all time high in the 2012 election cycle, according to a new analysis by MapLight.org of data from the Federal Elections Commission. LINKBOOKMARKS The Note: LINK The Must-Reads Online: LINK Top Line Webcast (12noon EST M-F): LINK ABC News Politics: LINK George's Bottom Line (George Stephanopoulos): LINK Follow ABC News on Twitter: LINK ABC News Mobile: LINK ABC News app on your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad: LINK